QuestionI have a 99 Buick century 3.1L automatic. The other day after using the car and parking it for about 45 minutes, I returned to the car, opened the door and reached in and started it. A couple of minutes later I got in the car and put it in reverse and it wouldn't move. I tried drive, still nothing. Acted like it was in neutral. I then noticed that the service engine soon light was on. I turned the engine off and restarted it and had no service engine light and the trans was now fine. Took it home and plugged in the scan tool and had no stored codes. Everything has been OK the last couple of days but I'm afraid to go very far with it until I know what caused the problem.
AnswerHi
I would say you MAY want to take it to a shop and have it rescanned for codes.
IF the motor was running, and the SES light was on, there almost has to be an OBDII code stored. MOST OBDII codes turn off SES light after 3 cycles with out a failure. SOME GM codes will turn it off next cycle, but ALL will store it in history for 40 cycles.
That being said, IF power was lost to the PCM, it will clear codes from history.
SO from what you say, if there is no codes stored, it is likely that you MAY have a power or grounding issue to the PCM. It MAY be inhibiting transmission operation.
There also is SOME issues I have run into of the Ignition Electrical switch cauing "phantom" problems similiar to yours.
I would again, take it to another shop and have them throw the scanner on it just to verify your diagnosis.
Please follow post back, if needed.
Good Luck
Pawl
